This is the weird moment Putin goes in for an awkward handshake with North Korea’s foreign minister at the Kremlin.
Choe Son Hui looked concerned when the Russian President gripped her hand for one minute while expressing his gratitude to North Korea for sending 11,000 troops to Ukraine.
Putin was not due to meet Choe Son Hui but he cleared his schedule to specifically meet with her.
She said: ‘From the very beginning of the special military operation, respected comrade Chairman of State Affairs Kim Jong Un gave the order that we, without looking over our shoulder at anyone, should invariably and powerfully support and provide assistance to the Russian army and the Russian people in their holy war.
‘We have no doubt that under the wise leadership of the respected President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, the Russian army and people will certainly achieve a great victory in their sacred struggle to protect the sovereign rights and security of their state.’
Handshaking is not a widespread custom in North Korea, hence why the 60-year-old diplomat may have looked concerned.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is already fighting North Korean troops on the frontline in Kursk.
He warned about the dangers of escalation without further support from the west.
Zelensky warned in his nightly appearance on TV: ‘As for the North Korean troops in Russia, there are already 11,000 in the Kursk region.
‘We see an increase in North Koreans and we do not see an increase in the reaction of our [Western] partners.’
The North Korean troops are wearing Russian uniform, according to Andrii Kovalenko, from Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council.
He said: ‘The first ones have already been under fire.
‘I can’t talk about the losses yet, I don’t know this, the information is being checked.
‘But the fact that the first ones have already been spotted and there was shelling on these positions, that’s for sure.’
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